Khris Middleton Addresses Power Struggle With Bucks Teammate

Many think that two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is unquestionably the go-to guy for the Bucks, but forward Khris Middleton thinks otherwise.

The Bucks have been quite successful in recent seasons and even won themselves a championship in 2021.

Middleton recently explained why he isn’t at loggerheads with Giannis on who is first option on the court.

“There’s never been a struggle about who is one and two between us,” Middleton told JJ Redick on The Old Man & the Three. “As we got older, there was a respect that was formed and bonded between those intense practices. Then as time goes on, we realized none of this matters once we got into the games. We had our battles in practice, now our job is to go out and win. So, whoever is one, two, three, four, five, that doesn’t matter.

“As long as we win, everything is taken care of itself, everybody gets paid, everybody is happy, and everybody gets to go wherever they wanna go. That’s just the way we learned.”

The three-time All-Star went on to explain how sometimes yes, Giannis can be the guy, but other times it’s him and the system works perfectly.

“Everybody wants to be ‘the guy,’ but sometimes it’s okay not being the guy, like I have no problem not being the guy,” Middleton said. “Some nights are going to be my night, he [Giannis] has no problem with that, and I know a lot of nights are going to be his night. As long as we win I’m happy I’m good… If you realize you wanna win, you have to sacrifice something. So, I think we’ve all had this mindset that at some point we have to sacrifice something within our game, within ourselves to be on a winning team and luckily it happened organically with us.”

Giannis himself has been doing a lot of talking about winning this offseason.

He has dropped major hints that if he can’t win another championship in Milwaukee, that he may just go and find himself another NBA team.

Just this week, Antetokounmpo told Bleav, “I’m a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I’m a winner… If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O’Brien I have to take that better situation.”